Forbidden Steel:

Tales of the Lady Knight: part 1

A.N.; Thanks For the wonderful reviews everyone! They were soooo nice. Well here is the 2nd chapter! Wheeeeeeeeeee! Please put up with any grammar or spelling mistakes, my sister who supposed to help me edit, doesn't want to help any more! Oh and sorry for any oocness!

Please remember even thought a person resembles a character or just because I'm using this plot doesn't mean that Sakura will end up with that certain person. Its possible thought… and I'm not going to follow the plot of the books too closely either.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything.

Last Time-

After that they waited for the servant in the courtyard. She was actually going to become a page and be on her way to becoming a Knight. That's if she survived the years here. If she could kept up with the other pages. They would be so much stronger than her, like Haku said; she would have to work harder then any of them. She would do it; she would become the best knight.

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"Duke Iruka will see you now, Lord Saku. Please follow me and I will take you to his study. You may call me Mara." The servant sent to get them said. She was of medium build and had mouse brown hair. She turned and started in to go in to palace. Sakura and Kakashi followed her through the maze that was the palace.

"How does one keep track of where they are going in this palace?" Sakura asked. Mara and Kakashi grinned at her.

"You'll be able to find your way after you've been here for a while." Kakashi said. Sakura nodded.

"Here is his Grace's study, please enter." Mara bow to them and opened a solid wood door for them. Inside the room, seated behind a desk strewn with scrolls, sat a handsome well dressed man with dark brown. He stood at their entrance. Kakashi and Sakura bowed to him. He nodded to them and said, "Please be seated, Kakashi and Lord Saku, do you have a letter from your …Father, Lord Zabuza?"

Sakura knew her father's dislike for Duke Iruka of Golden Fox Forest, but she had not known was Duke Iruka's dislike for her father. What ever he had been about to say about her father he changed it. Sakura with drew the letter from her father from and handed to Duke Iruka.

He opened the letter and began to read it as Sakura looked around the room. It was well furnished and well lit. Over the mantle there was a painting of the Duke's family. He and a blonde blue eyed boy stood, while the blonde blue eyed lady sat. The painter, who ever it was, was a great one. The painting looked almost life like. The lady was a breath-taking beauty, and from the expression in her eyes, she knew it. The blonde boy looked happy and full of life. The Duke's expression was composed and serious.

"Well then, Lord Saku, everything seems to be in order." The duke's voice startled her out of her musing. She turned and looked up at him.

"You understand you are here to learn, not play around, it will be a hard road to become a knight, but gods willing, you'll become one. Now Mara will take you to get fitted for page clothing and then to your rooms. Some nights you will be serving at the dinners. Not this week. You will serve me next week. If you get into trouble you'll be sent to me and punished with extra chores. You will have classes in the morning and weapon and defense classes after lunch, which is at noon. If you hurry you'll be able to have dinner with the pages. Now go. Kakashi, if you would like to stay, we can discuss your becoming one of the palace guards."

"Yes, Your Grace."

Sakura bowed and left with Mara.

After being fitted for her page's uniform, Mara guided her down winding hall ways to the pages wing and to her room where Mara left her with the parting words,

"Don't play pranks on the servants, unless you want to clean your own room and make your own bed for the rest of your years here."

Sakura's nervousness abated a little, she had gotten past the Duke and the man who had taken her sizes and was still here. "Well, I'd better get changed…."

Sakura quickly changed, not wanting to miss dinner and the chance to see the other pages. The tunic was a muted silver color and the under shirt was a midnight blue color. The colors complimented each other well. She smiled and finished changing. She had just finished changing when loud shouts from outside alerted her to the fact that the pages where out of their rooms and ready to go to dinner.

She opened her door and stepped out into the hall way, where she could see the other pages in a loose circle shout comments to the pages inside the circle. She could not see who it was but she heard voices.

"Think your better than everyone one do you, Inuzuka?"

"I never said that! You're the one who was telling us 1st years to bow and serve you!"

Suddenly the circle parted and a boy came hurling at her and slammed into her. She fell to the floor, hard. With a grunt of pain, she tried to push the boy off her. His eyes were closed and his face sported cuts and a broken nose. He had unruly brown hair cut short. She looked up at the boy who had thrown him. His honey-gold eyes stared at them and his lips were quirked in to a smirked that infuriated her. His long black hair was tied back out of his face.

"Oh what do we have here? A new page, huh? And who might you be?

Sakura glared up at the boy who looked a few years older than she. She managed to get the unconscious boy off of her.

She stood and answered. "Saku of Leaflet Glen, whose asking?"

The older boy grinned viciously at her, as he walked toward her and the other boy. "Your new master, Lord Orochimaru of Snake Ridge."

She spitted on the ground in front of Orochimaru. "I have no masters!"

"I was hoping you'd say that!" His vicious grin seemed to become more vicious, if it was possible. The boy on the ground chose that moment to regain consciousness. He stood up with a groan of pain, and looked up to see a boot slam into his face, hurting the already broken nose. He reeled backwards.

"After I finish with Inuzuka, I'll teach you to obey me, Leaflet, just you wait."

Sakura growled and could not just watch him beat up the other boy. To stop him from punching the boy again she threw her whole body against him, knocking him to the floor.

"Couldn't wait to get your butt kicked?" He pushed her off of him and picked her up by the front of her shirt.

"You are going to regret coming here, boy."

"The only one whose is going to be doing any regretting here is you, Orochimaru." A commanding voice growled.

Sakura was instantly released and she fell to the ground.

"Prince Neji…So good to see you, I was just teaching these pages the meaning of respect."

"Shut up, I know what you were doing, it's a good thing Inari came and got me. You remember what happened last time do you not?"

"I remember your highness."

Orochimaru shot a glare at short boy beside the prince, as Sakura stood up and dusted herself off. She examined the prince, and the 5 other boys that stood near him. Prince Neji had long chocolate colored hair and pearl eyes. He was not tall but not short either for a boy his age.

"Leave Orochimaru, now…out of my sight." The prince ordered. They watched Orochimaru leave and then turned to face Sakura, the new page.

"And just who are you?" Was the simple question directed at her. She felt her face heat up at all the attention she was receiving and answered softly, "Saku of Leaflet Glen, Your Highness." She bowed to him. She felt cool fingers touch her just under her chin and raise her face up to meet his. Her catlike emerald eyes stared into his pearl ones.

"I think it was a good thing you were in the hall way today, to help Kiba here. I know of your brother Lord Haku, but I did not know he had a younger brother."

Sakura's nervousness was back in full force as she tried to think of a reply. Fortunately she was saved from making one by one of the boy's that came with the prince as the boy commented on her height.

"Well, well you're a small one, even smaller than, Inari! I didn't think 10yrs. could be any smaller…are you sure your 10?" A blonde blue eyed boy said. He looked like the boy in the painting with Duke Iruka, just older, but not by much.

"I am 10...I am sure of it." She growled at the blonde boy.

"Oh, this one has a temper! Heh, I am Naruto of Golden Fox Forest." The blonde boy said grinning at her.

Sakura stared up at the blonde, so he was Duke Iruka's son. He looked nothing like the duke, but more like his mother in the painting.

The prince grinned at her. "Don't worry about him, He likes to joke around."

"And this stupid looking boy over here is Sasuke of Uchiha City." The boy in question glared at Naruto as Naruto started introducing the other 3 boys that were around the prince. Sasuke had black hair and cold onyx eyes. He nodded to her in greeting.

"The lazy looking one here is Shikamaru of Lazy Bird Lake." This boy really did look lazy with medium brown hair and lazy coffee colored eyes. Her father had told her that most of the lords from the Lazy Bird Lake were exceptional knights. She wondered if maybe this Shikamaru would turn out like the knights from his house.

"We are some of the 3td year pages, the prince is a second year page and that short one with the black hair is Inari of Nelic Port." So this was the one who went and got the prince and his friends. He was short compared to the other boys but still a head taller than she.

After Naruto finished introducing the five boys that had come with the prince, the other boys in the hall began to introduce themselves at the same time, Sakura tried to keep up.

"I'm Konohamaru of Hokage Fief!"

"I'm Lee of Rock Mountain!"

"I'm Choji of Fief Darken…"

"I'm Shino of Port Klenne…"

"I'm Kiba of Inuzuka Fief! Thanks for helping me, Orochimaru is a jerk." It was the boy she had defended from Orochimaru. His nose was dripping blood as the boy spoke. He wiped it away with his sleeve.

"You should go to see the palace healer, Shikamaru, take him please." The prince commanded softly. "I will speak to the Duke; I know you were supposed to serve tonight, Kiba."

Kiba said thanks and then left with Shikamaru. The prince turned to look at her once more. "We need to find you a sponsor…who will sponsor this one?"

"I will!" Naruto said smiling at her. The prince nodded his approval. "Come little one, I will show you about tomorrow; right now it's time for dinner." As if agreeing with him Sakura's stomach grumbled.

The other boys laughed. "Well I guess his stomach agrees." Naruto laughing said as he slung his arm around her shoulders and directed her to the mess hall.

The next morning Sakura groaned as she rolled over in her cot. A bell was ring in the distance; it was what had woken her up. She sat up and dragged herself out of bed. She yawned and looked over to the cot that Kakashi slept on. He had slept right through the bell. She figured he could sleep right through a horse stampede.

He being her servant shared the room with her. When she moved up to being a squire he would get his own room in the servant's quarters. She dressed quickly behind the changing screen Kakashi had set up at the far end of the room. After dressing she woke Iruka up and told him she was leaving. He wished her good luck and promptly fell back to sleep. She opened her door and sucked in air to clam herself. Nervousness and excitement rushed up and down her spine and anxiety gripped her heart.

'What if I can't do this? What if I'm not strong enough?' These questions raced across her mind as she shut the door and began walk in the direction of the mess hall, when she bumped into somebody she fell to the floor and groan.

"Well, well, well, if it isn't my little servant , Saku of Leaflet…. "

Sakura recognized this malicious voice of Orochimaru. He was standing with another guy with silver hair. He didn't look much nicer than Orochimaru. "I am not your servant, Orochimaru!"

"Heh, apparently I need to continue the lesson from yesterday. And too bad for you…the other pages already left for breakfast, there's no one to save you now."

He smiled at her as she picked her self up off the floor, only to be knocked back down. She glared up at Orochimaru.

"I don't need any one to save me!" She stood up to face him. He picked her up by her shirt collar and said, "You are in for a lot of pain little servant." Then he punched her in the stomach and dropped her on the floor and began to kick her. She gasped trying to breathe. She rolled away from him and stood up as fast as she could and winced at the pain. He was suddenly there in front of her. He grinned at her and threw against the wall. The back of her head smacked the wall and the air was stolen from her again. She slid down the wall to the floor in pain.

Her head throbbed in pain. She waited for the next attack, but there was none. Instead there was a grunt of surprise and someone hit the wall beside her. She heard Orochimaru say, what are you doing here? You're supposed to be eating!"

Sakura opened her eyes to see Naruto and Sasuke standing a few feet from her. Orochimaru was being held by the collar by Sasuke and the boy who had been standing with Orochimaru was beside her unconscious. She stood up slowly. Her head just a big throbbing pain.

"Saku wasn't at breakfast and neither were you and Kabuto. It wasn't hard to figure out why." Naruto said winking at her. He walked toward her. "Wow, he did a number on you. Heh, you must be hungry and in pain. Eat this and after you finished, I'll take you to the palace healer. I pilfered the food from the kitchens since you missed breakfast. Go a head and eat!"

The food offered to her was cold ham, cheese, and bread; she took them gratefully and began to eat. The pain in her head began to subside as she ate. She was going to have a bump.

"I don't need to go to the healer, I'm fine, and we need to get to classes." After she said that Sasuke joined them. "I don't think he'll mess with you for a while." She looked pasted them and didn't see Orochimaru or Kabuto anywhere. She realized she had forgotten Orochimaru for a moment. She raised an eyebrow at him. He just smirked. They began to walk toward the wing of the palace where their classes were located.

TBC…..

A.N. Wheeee, sorry for taking so long to get this chapter out…. Job hunting takes a lot of time and effort. Hope you enjoyed! Please review and tell me what you think.